On February 13th (the day of the mass demonstrations against the decline of public life symbolised by Berlusconi) there were so many people - women and men in Rome's Piazza del Popolo that you just couldn't get in and once in couldn't get out. Cell phones weren't working, so it wasn't possible to meet up as we'd planned. The only thing to do was to relax, listen, and talk with those beside us in the Piazza.
The speeches from the platform weren't particularly great. It wasn't a real public meeting with professional speakers. There were quite a few readings, some of them boring - as reading often are when performed by people who don't know how to project their voices and maintain a rhythm. There were also some rather dubious speeches... but the demonstration was peaceful and relaxed, made up of people who, in all simplicity and without moralism, were standing up for their dignity, their right to live in a civilised country.
And it was a marvelous gathering. People of all sorts, tolerant acceptance of all political positions and all life style choices from nuns to sex workers. There was the feeling that you have at the theatre when the comedy ends - you didn't like it, it was all to overdone, vulgar and farsical. It didn't make you laugh, in fact it was a little nauseating like a joke in bad taste told over and over again by pimply adolescents.... Finally it ends. You can leave without disturbing everyone on your row and when you get outside in the fresh air, you realise that the play has bored and nauseated everyone.. you can see the it written on their relieved faces .There wasn't just Piazza del Popolo. Some women who didn't manage to get in, started an improvised march throuh the streets of central Rome, which because more and more joyful and liberating and which arrived in front of the seat of government. They really enjoyed themselves. Free, indecorous, autonomous, not ready to delegate. Rebels are beautiful, because they have the scent of freedom.
The Rome women in black were in the Piazza and in the march. Those who managed to get into Piazza del Popolo unfurled their banner -Donna é volare (to be a woman is to fly)- in memory of a dear friend. It was a prophetic slogan. All the women who experienced that demonstration know that they won't turn back. It took us some years, but it's clear that we've taken flight and we really can't go back.
